🔗 Share this article

The biggest shock the cinema world has experienced in 2025? The return of horror as a leading genre at the UK box office.

As a genre, it has impressively exceeded past times with a annual growth of 22% for the UK and Irish box office: over £83 million this year, compared with £68.6 million last year.

“Last year, no horror film reached £10m at the UK or Irish box office. This year, five films have,” notes a cinema revenue expert.

The top performers of the year – a recent horror title (£11.4 million), another hit film (£16.2m), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98 million) and the sequel to a classic (£15.54m) – have all stayed in the cinemas and in the popular awareness.

Even though much of the industry commentary centers on the unique excellence of prominent auteurs, their successes indicate something evolving between audiences and the category.

“Many have expressed, ‘You should watch this even if horror isn’t your thing,’” explains a head of acquisition.

“These productions twist traditional elements to craft unique experiences, resonating deeply with modern audiences.”

But apart from creative value, the steady demand of spooky films this year suggests they are giving audiences something that’s highly necessary: emotional release.

“These days, movies echo the prevalent emotions of rage, anxiety, and polarization,” says a film commentator.

“Horror films are great at playing into people’s anxieties, while at the same time exaggerating them. So you forget about your day-to-day anxieties and focus on the monster on the screen,” says a respected writer of horror film history.

In the context of a current events featuring war, border tensions, far-right movements, and environmental crises, ghosts, monsters, and mythical entities strike a unique chord with audiences.

“I read somewhere that the success of vampire movies is linked to economically depressed times,” comments an actress from a successful fright film.

“It’s the idea that capitalism sucks the life out of people.”

From film's inception, societal turmoil has shaped horror.

Experts highlight the rise of early cinematic styles after the WWI and the unstable environment of the 1920s Europe, with films such as classic silent horror and the iconic vampire tale.

This was followed by the Great Depression era and iconic horror characters.

“The classic example is Dracula: you get this invasion of Britain by someone from eastern Europe who then causes this infection that gets spread in all sorts of ways and threatens the Anglo-Saxon heroes,” says a historian.

“So it reflects a lot of anxieties around immigration.”

The phantom of border issues shaped the newly launched rural fright The Severed Sun.

The filmmaker explains: “I aimed to delve into populist rhetoric. Specifically, calls to restore a mythical past that favored a privileged few.”

“Secondly, the idea that you could be with someone you know and then suddenly they blurt out something round the dinner table or in a Facebook post and you’re like, ‘Where did that come from?’”

Arguably, the current era of celebrated, politically engaged fright cinema commenced with a clever critique debuted a year after a polarizing administration.

It introduced a new wave of visionary directors, including several notable names.

“That period was incredibly stimulating,” recalls a director whose movie about a deadly unborn child was one of the era’s tentpole movies.

“I believe it initiated a trend toward eccentric, high-concept horror that aimed for artistic recognition.”

This creator, now penning a fresh horror script, notes: “Over 10 years, audiences’ minds have been opening up to much more of that.”

Concurrently, there has been a reappraisal of the overlooked scary films.

In recent months, a new cinema opened in London, showing underground films such as a quirky horror title, The Fall of the House of Usher and the modern reinterpretation of Dr Caligari.

The re-appreciation of this “gritty and loud” genre is, according to the venue creator, a clear response to the algorithmic content churned out at the theaters.

“It’s a reaction to the sanitised product that’s coming out of Hollywood. You have a film scene that’s more tepid and more predictable. A lot of the mainstream films are very similar,” he says.

“On the other hand, [these indie works] feel imperfect. They seem to burst forth from deep creativity, free from commercial constraints.”

Horror films continue to upset the establishment.

“They have this strange ability to seem old fashioned and up to the minute, both at the same time,” observes an specialist.

In addition to the return of the mad scientist trope – with two adaptations of a classic novel imminent – he forecasts we will see fright features in the near future reacting to our current anxieties: about artificial intelligence control in the coming decades and “vampires living in the Trump tower”.

At the same time, a biblical fright story The Carpenter’s Son – which depicts the events of biblical parent hardships after the messiah's arrival, and stars famous performers as the holy parents – is set for release soon, and will certainly create waves through the religious conservatives in the United States.</